Enhancing CDC communications to improve customer experience
Key takeaways
CDC-INFO enables emergency response communications for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), providing multi-channel access to timely, reliable, science-based health information. In response to COVID-19, Maximus scaled CDC-INFO’s qualified staff by 1000% and expanded its service to 24/7. The success of the effort highlighted the strong partnership between Maximus and the CDC, which enabled proactive preparation for pandemic response.
Robust surge support to address a public health crisis.
Situation
Through communication channels including phone, e-mail, mail, and chat, CDC-INFO provides information on more than 750 health topics, supporting the public during emergencies with live agents and extended hours. The first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a steady 130% increase in inquiries to CDC-INFO, peaking at 220K+ calls in March 2020 alongside a 90% increase in email volume.
Challenge
CDC needed to rapidly activate a surge plan, including efficient onboarding of contact center agents and scaling of its intelligent virtual response technology with minimal disruption to established customer service levels.
Solution
The agency tasked Maximus as its technology and digitally enabled customer experience partner to provide:
- A Surge Response Team including representatives from each CDC-INFO critical functional area to coordinate and manage surge processes and tasks
- Service expansion to 24/7 and contact center footprint from two to five locations
- Rapid staff onboarding of 500+ new full-time employees (a 10-fold increase over standard surge staffing)
- Real-time data and call analytics solutions to identify trends and improve customer satisfaction
- Digitally enabled system enhancements to improve consistent communication of health information
- Expert training and education, including work-from-home protocols
Omni-channel support to deliver human-centered experiences.
How We Did It
Maximus employed several approaches to help ensure success:
- Conducted advanced planning to prepare for any pandemic or public health crisis
- Established regular checkpoints, including weekly surge and quality overviews and bi-weekly training meetings
- Integrated industry-leading technologies, including queue monitoring, computer telephony, customer relationship and content management systems, secure virtual desktops, and program documentation management
- Provided nimble response with relevant, consistent communication across all functional areas to address rapidly changing circumstances
Results
- High overall customer service (85%-100%) and quality assurance (90%) scores
- 24-hour high-priority email and postal mail turnaround
- Scaled CDC-INFO by 1000% to more than 600 full-time staff
- Measurably increased agent productivity
- Improved staff morale with new opportunities for skill adoption and promotion
- Provided high levels of consistent service and exceeded project goals during a major public health event for our Nation
Maximus and CDC-INFO received the 2021 Service to the Citizen Award for demonstrating excellence in service delivery that impacts lives and rebuilds trust in government.